V&A new fashion exhibition to explore links between fashion and nature

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Nov 2, 2017

Designs from Stella McCartney, Christian Dior, Dries van Noten and Calvin Klein will go on display at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum as part of its next major fashion exhibition ‘Fashioned from Nature’.

Opening on 21 April 2018, the exhibition will trace the complex relationship between fashion and the natural world since 1600, highlighting nature as a source of inspiration for fashion designers and the industry’s impact on the environment.

300 intriguing and unsettling objects will go on display, including the Calvin Klein dress made from recycled plastic bottles that Emma Watson wore to the 2016 Met Gala, a floral dress from Erdem’s Green Carpet Challenge collection and pieces from sustainable fashion designer Stella McCartney.

2016 Giles Deacon haute-couture dress with a pattern of delicate bird’s eggs will be presented alongside a contemporary Gucci bag decorated with stag beetle motifs to illustrate how the natural world provides inspiration for fashion.

Meanwhile, a bold display of posters, slogan clothes and artworks will show how protest movements have helped draw attention to the harmful side of fashion. A mannequin will pay homage to an outfit worn by Vivienne Westwood while protesting against climate change and a man’s outfit from Katharine Hamnett’s 1989 ‘Clean Up or Die’ collection will be on show alongside posters from Fashion Revolution.

Visitors will be able to explore the impact the production of fashion has on nature using sensors at two interactive installations created by LCF’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion.

‘Fashioned from Nature’ opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on 21 April.